Open call for artists: Saari Residence, Finland 2023

We are pleased to invite professional artists to submit their applications for the international Saari Residence in 2023. The residency periods are two months long, and the residency includes a work grant in addition to accommodation and workspace. Applications for group residencies for artistic groups in the summer of 2023 are also welcome.

Applications for residencies are always submitted a year before the residency takes place. The two-month working periods for individuals take place from January to February 2023, from March to April 2023, from September to October 2023 and from November to December 2023. From June to mid-August, all the facilities of the residence are reserved for the residency periods of groups of artists, ranging from 2 to 4 weeks.

Saari Residence, an international artist in residence

Saari Residence, which started its operations in 2008 and is maintained by Kone Foundation, is an international residence for artists in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland. It offers professional artists from all fields of art the opportunity to free themselves from their everyday routines for the duration of their residency and focus on creative work. Saari Residence’s beautiful, historic surroundings and rural milieu offer an excellent setting for artists to immerse themselves in their work. Residence participants are encouraged to delve into their artistic work and to develop potential new directions for it side by side with the other residents. Saari Residence also gives artists a platform to meet other artists and share their thoughts and ideas.

The residence’s long-term activities and thinking are underpinned by an ecological approach, which also covers social and mental sustainability. The key words are slowness, insight and change. When selecting artists for the residence, whether they work with ecological topics is not one of our selection criteria; instead, our focus on ecology lies in the residence’s overall activities. We encourage those coming to the residence from outside Finland to apply for a grant for slow travel to cover their travel expenses. The slow travel grant must be applied for at the same time as the general residency grant; you cannot apply for it retrospectively.

The residencies are designed for artistic work. Priority is given to multidisciplinary, new, or non-mainstream themes and fields of art.

The common language of the international residence for artists is English.

Every year, the Saari Residence provides work facilities for between 35 and 50 individual artists, researchers or working groups. Since it opened, the residence has hosted approximately 600 artists and researchers from over 50 countries. Last year, 802 individual artists and working groups from 77 countries applied for residency. The award rate for residencies at Saari is approximately 5–7%.

Saari Residence offers artists:

A grant

An individual residency spanning two months includes accommodation, a workroom and a monthly grant, which is determined according to the applicant’s experience (€2,500 / €3,000 / €3,600 per month). The grant is intended to cover the cost of living, travel costs and other expenses. Groups can apply for a grant for the duration of their residency (2 to 4 weeks).

Grant for slow travel

We encourage residents accepted to the Saari Residence to opt for slow travel. Slow travel means avoiding flying and other ecologically unsustainable means of transport. If the journey takes more than a week in total, it is possible to also apply for a work grant for the period of travelling.

Accommodation

The Saari Residence apartments have a kitchen or kitchenette with basic amenities, and one of the buildings has a shared kitchen. Each resident has a whole apartment to themselves, and each apartment has an en suite shower and toilet. Groups live more closely and often share apartments.

Working space

The Saari Residence’s barn has been renovated as a diverse workspace for artists engaged in different art forms. The barn contains a dance studio, four studios for visual artists, a small sewing corner and a woodworking shop. The rooms for those engaged in writing are located in the apartments. The residence does not have a darkroom, media room or equipment for printing, nor equipment for pottery, graphic art or textile work (apart from a sewing machine). You can also apply for a residency for the planning phase of your work. Groups working at the residence during summer months may also work in the unheated outbuildings. You will not have to share your workspace with others.

Peaceful working environment

Saari Residence is located in a tranquil rural setting surrounded by nature, on the shore of Mietoistenlahti, 30 km north of Turku. Its diverse workspaces, the nearby waterfowl habitat and the peaceful rural surroundings provide a productive setting for focusing on your work. Saari Residence is not aimed, for example, at networking within the field of art or putting on exhibitions or performances, and no exhibition or performance is required at the end of the residency period.

Opportunity to meet other artists

The residence is a place for the artists and researchers working there to meet, share and leave their mark on each others’ thoughts and work and the Saari Residence itself. During the spring and autumn, the Saari Residence provides individual residencies usually for eight artists at a time for a period of two months. During the individual residencies, there is also one researcher or non-fiction writer working at Saari with the help of a grant from Kone Foundation. In addition, the Saari Residence community artist works at the residence throughout the year.

Mentoring programme

We offer each artist working in an individual residency the opportunity for two mentoring meetings with remote access during their residency. Our mentors are key professionals in their fields of art who live in Finland. They have a career spanning at least a couple of decades and are skilled listeners and conversationalists. They all also have a personal relationship with the Saari Residence. The mentoring sessions will be carried out in connection with the two-month periods of individual residencies, from the beginning of September to the end of April. There is no mentoring in the summer.

Who can apply?

Saari Residence is an international retreat available to individual professional artists, authors, translators, composers, curators and critics, as well as groups of artists (working groups or organisations with a business ID and at least three members in the group) from Finland and abroad, where the residents selected carry out a pre-established work plan during their residency. Work partners must apply for an individual residency by filling in a joint application. Researchers or non-fiction writers cannot apply for residency through an open application.

The Saari Residence strives to take equality and accessibility into account in its operations. You can also apply to the Saari Residence with your family. As part of the Saari Residence’s social sustainability, accessibility and diversity, workgroups arriving from Global South can apply for support for the flights.

Possibility of a home residency

If the applicant is unable to travel to the Saari Residence due to accessibility reasons, they can apply to the Saari Residence’s home residency programme. Home residencies are granted only if there are good grounds for doing so. The reasons for granting a home residency relate to accessibility and equality, such as physical limitations, family reasons (e.g. being a single parent) or the difficult political situation of the applicant’s country of origin. A person working in a home residency participates in the activities remotely. The home residency is comparable to working at the residence, and applicants can apply either to work at the Saari Residence in person or at home within the Saari Residence’s home residency programme.